Mobile computing devices, such as smartphones and tablets, may require users to authenticate themselves to the device before allowing the user to perform various actions. For example, a smartphone lock screen may require the user to enter a PIN to unlock the smartphone, and may also require the user to enter passwords at various other points during usage of the smartphone. This may result in frequent interruption of the user's use of the mobile computing device, as the user has to stop whatever action they were attempting to authenticate themselves to the device. The user may also set security preferences so that the mobile computing device doesn't present certain prompts for authorization. For example, a smartphone's user may set preferences that prevent the smartphone from requesting a PIN to unlock the smartphone. This may streamline the user's experience, as the user may see fewer interruptions, but may make the mobile computing device less secure, as any other user could unlock and use the smartphone.
Certain signals from the mobile computing device may be used to more intelligently present authentication prompts to the user. For example, a PIN may be required to unlock a smartphone during certain times of day, but not during others. Various components of mobile computing devices operating system or platform may be able to make security decisions, however, the components may make separate decisions and may not always agree with each other, creating situations where some components may indicate the authentication prompts can be skipped while other components indicate that authentication prompts should continue to be presented to the user.